Microsoft HoloLens has a disappointingly small field of vision

Microsoft HoloLens fulfills our nerdiest Star Wars fantasies, finally making holograms a reality. But as futuristic as the augmented reality headset is, one complaint many people who have tried the headset on (myself included) have is its narrow field of view (FOV). In a new video that highlights how HoloLens can be used to learn about anatomy, Microsoft briefly shows just how narrow the headset’s FOV is — more like a transparent display that floats in front of you as opposed to immersing you in full 360-degrees the way VR headsets like the Oculus Rift do. SEE ALSO: HoloLens needs more work, but using it with ‘Minecraft’ is so damn cool As you can see in the screenshots below and the video embedded above, it’s not pretty. hololens-fov-1 IMAGE: MICROSOFT hololens-fov-2 IMAGE: MICROSOFT I had a chance to try HoloLens at E3 as part of a Halo 5 experience and I can report the FOV is indeed an issue. Mashable games reporter Adam Rosenberg also took issue with it. But if you’re thinking that Microsoft could improve things by the time the headset launches, don’t hold your breath. Video game publication Giant Bomb sat down with Microsoft’s Kudo Tsunoda (guy who invented Kinect) to talk about HoloLens’ FOV, in which he replied: “I think you’re never going to get to full peripheral field of view, but certainly the hardware we have, the field of view isn’t exactly final. But I wouldn’t say it’s going to be hugely noticeably different either.” There’s no official launch date for Microsoft HoloLens outside of the “Windows 10 launch timeframe.” Windows 10 will be available later this month on July 29. Microsoft also hasn’t announced pricing for the HoloLens.